DESTIN, Florida -- The SEC distributed a record total of $309.6 million to its 14 institutions in 2013-14, the conference announced Friday.

The total amounts to slightly more than $20.9 million per school, which does not include bowl money retained by participating schools in the 2013 season.

The SEC paid its schools a total of $289.4 million in 2013 before bowl money was retained by participants, which helped increase the total to $304.7 million.

The payout, which has gone up every year since 1990, could get a big boost with the launch of the SEC Network in August. SEC commissioner Mike Slive is not sure what kind of effect the network will have on the payouts in the immediate future.

"We're optimistic," Slive said. "We believe the product is so good, we believe the network is so strong, we believe the network will be national, we believe it will generate revenue as it grows over the next decade. But to speculate how much that will add to the revenue through the conference to our institutions is really speculative."